Build it and They Will Come
The Multi-Purpose Education Center, newly constructed with a fresh coat of paint in 2018.
In 1995, while on a return visit to Kandale, Colette was taken on a tour of the village and the school. The classrooms were barely functioning as spaces of learning and were in dire need of improvement. To the credit of the local community, they had constructed a long building that was designed to act as a classroom and to serve as a location to take the National Exams. Regrettably, the roof leaked and taking exams was somewhat problematic if it rained. As fate would have it, that night there was a terrible storm and most of the classrooms were flattened along with the longer classroom.
For Colette, it was a call to action. Over the next several years the community mobilized and began to raise awareness about improvements that needed to happen with the school. In 2010 members of the community began clearing the site, and collecting rocks, tin sheets, and money to build new classrooms, but they lacked the engineering skills to build a dependable school. In 2011 a fundraising campaign called: “Operation 1000 Toles Pour Kandale” (Operation Roof For Kandale), was successfully launched and the community in Kandale, together with its members and sympathizers beyond Kandale's borders, raised $22,000. In 2012, they began work on six classrooms for the primary school. The community started making cement bricks with brick forms, but the process was very time consuming as it required several days for the bricks to cure and then there was the constant battle with the weather and goats stepping on wet bricks. Eventually six classrooms were built and are still standing.
To construct buildings and classrooms with cement bricks was not cost effective. The Board of REVE Kandale Foundation learned about an alternative and more economic way to make bricks with a brick making machine that used a mixture of locally sourced clay and cement. This was the basis for the first RKF campaign in 2017 to raise $35,000 to purchase a brick making machine and have it delivered from Belgium to Kandale along with all the building materials.
By 2018 the crew in Kandale had made 17,000 bricks to build the first structure,
The Multi-Purpose Education Center.
The Multi-Purpose Education Center with the adjacent water tanks.
The Multi-Purpose Education Center now sits at the center of a growing network of buildings and structures that include the primary school, the growing high school, the girls’ dormitories and the tukuls. The building serves as the primary space for students to take exams, for the community to hold regular meetings and a space to entrust the growing library, the very popular sewing program, the solar panels and access to the internet. Presently the electricity generated by the solar panels lights the various rooms and offices. In addition, the solar panels provide power to run the laptops and connect to the internet. People come great distances to use the internet to communicate with loved ones in Angola, Kinshasa, and internationally. Colette communicates from Washington DC on a regular basis with members in Kandale using email, Facebook, Zoom and WhatsApp. Even the roof collects rainwater to fill the three large tanks that sit adjacent to the building to help alleviate the water crisis in Kandale. The lights have changed the culture of the community by allowing people to stay up late to communicate, read from the growing library or even study for their classes.
The internal spaces of the MPEC include a large community gathering space, , a growing library and access to the internet.
Without a place to take their national exam, students in Kandale had to walk 60 kilometers to Gungu and find a host family to stay with while they took the national exam. This obstacle contributed to an increased number of dropouts, especially for seniors as they could not afford the added costs for this endeavor.
Students lining up at the MPEC to take their Exam d'Etat.
Students anxiously awaiting for the exam to begin.
On Friday July 19th Le Exam d’Etat or the State Exam was held. Of the 252 students prepared to take the exam, 21 were unable to come up with the exam fees of 50,000 Congolese francs or $25 and they will have to repeat the year if their financial situation improves. The exams were late due to COVID, and it will prevent many of the students from being able to go and collect caterpillars this year. The sale of the caterpillars is often used to help pay for their school fees and buy necessary school supplies. Delegates arrived from various cities, Mukedi, Idiofa, and Kikwit, to monitor the exam. Normally the idea of leaving the city to go monitor exams in the rural countryside was deemed a form of punishment. This year, however, with adequate housing, and rooms for typing, photocopying, internet access and paid phone services, it was viewed as a retreat from the hectic life of the city. Several of the delegates gave the new facilities high praise.
The new kitchen for the girls dormitory, under construction. (Now completed)
Colette will be leaving at the end of August to reconnect with the team from Burkina Faso to finish the installation of the new inverter and to bring flour grinders. In addition, the solar panels that were installed by Dr. Karl Klontz, will be upgraded. Presently, the lights at the girl’s dormitories work on motion detectors which allow the girls to go to the outhouse at night without being disturbed by snakes. It gives them peace of mind and they sleep better knowing that the lights are helping to keep them safe. Colette will be overseeing the completion of the work on the windows and the painting of the primary school. She will be hosting the ABCD training Module 2, on community-centered development. In addition, they will be bringing many new books to replenish the library and especially the books that are needed for the National Curriculum. There will be two copies, one for the students and one for the teachers.
These baby owls were rescued from one of the buildings in the village. The papa owl and mama owl are still feeding them. The team has tied the little birds gently to keep them from walking out where there are many predators. Owls are considered bad luck creatures and should not to be touched. The fact that they are being protected is a testimony to the success of our campaign for tree planting and environment protection since 2010, in Kandale.
We wish Colette a safe and productive journey. Kwenda mbote Mama!
